I've recently got my curiousity triggered with respect to exactly which professions involve earning one's living by a wrong form of livelihood, so wonder if those more learned in the Pali canon than I, can help with these questions:

Is there anywhere in the Theravada canon, where the professions in breach of right livelihood (samma ajiva) are explicitly mentioned? In lieu of that, which suttas or other canonical sources are the most accurate with respect to such professions?

"Monks, a lay follower should not engage in five types of business. Which five? Business in weapons, business in human beings, business in meat, business in intoxicants, and business in poison.

"These are the five types of business that a lay follower should not engage in."-- AN 5.177

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

It is an important topic. The way that you earn a living has a powerful effect because it the kamma that you are doing every day.

Even if your livelihood is not immoral or wrong-livelihood according toe the strict definition of the texts, it still has a significant effect on your future happiness.

In our modern materialistic society, there are many ways of earning a living that depend on encouraging foolishness, and the endless pursuit of sensual pleasures. It may be perfectly lawful and not immoral pleasures, but it is not a wholesome livelihood.

The ideal livelihood would be one that encourages wholesome kamma such as giving charity, observing morality, learning, or the development of wisdom.

Thank you both, for replying. I have red through that other thread mentioned. As far as canonical text goes, I found only the same sutra already posted here together, together with a related, very freely translated commentary. Apart from some references to dhammapada and a sutra - both at most only indirectly related to the topic of "professions involve earning one's living by a wrong form of livelihood" -, the said thread only contains personal opinions and interpretations.

Can I take it that the one and only sutta known to readers of this thread and naming the professions in question is AN 5.177 ?

I've recently got my curiousity triggered with respect to exactly which professions involve earning one's living by a wrong form of livelihood, so wonder if those more learned in the Pali canon than I, can help with these questions:

Is there anywhere in the Theravada canon, where the professions in breach of right livelihood (samma ajiva) are explicitly mentioned? In lieu of that, which suttas or other canonical sources are the most accurate with respect to such professions?

"Monks, a lay follower should not engage in five types of business. Which five? Business in weapons, business in beings(such as selling animals), business in meat, business in intoxicants, and business in poison.

"These are the five types of business that a lay follower should not engage in."

anando wrote:Hi,the only profession that is allowed ist the one of a teacher.

anando

I find that extremely difficult to both digest and agree with....

Where is the source of your comment, please?

You will not be punished FOR your 'emotions'; you will be punished BY your 'emotions'.

Pay attention, simplify, and (Meditation instruction in a nutshell) "Mind - the Gap." ‘Absit invidia verbo’ - may ill-will be absent from the word. And mindful of that, if I don't respond, this may be why....

anando wrote:the only profession that is allowed ist the one of a teacher.

No. A person who works for a garbage removal company driving a truck to pick up your garbage by the curb is not teaching anyone anything, yet it is wholesome work and not one of the wrong livelihoods (and of course numerous other examples like this too).

steinghan wrote:Thank you both, for replying. I have red through that other thread mentioned. As far as canonical text goes, I found only the same sutra already posted here together, together with a related, very freely translated commentary. Apart from some references to dhammapada and a sutra - both at most only indirectly related to the topic of "professions involve earning one's living by a wrong form of livelihood" -, the said thread only contains personal opinions and interpretations.

Can I take it that the one and only sutta known to readers of this thread and naming the professions in question is AN 5.177 ?

That is the only one I've ever seen. However, one has to use some common sense I think. For example, if your livelihood intrinsically requires you to break any of the precepts, you could easily say it's "wrong livelihood", even if it's not one of the specific 5 professions above.

steinghan wrote:Can I take it that the one and only sutta known to readers of this thread and naming the professions in question is AN 5.177 ?

There are also discussions of livelihood in SN 42.2 and SN 42.3 which discuss occupations other than those listed in AN 5.177.

The two links listed, actually refer more to 'Wrong Views' held by those making presumptions about favourable rebirths after they cease to exist in the professions they follow.... It's not to say that those professions are wrong, necessarily.

You will not be punished FOR your 'emotions'; you will be punished BY your 'emotions'.

Pay attention, simplify, and (Meditation instruction in a nutshell) "Mind - the Gap." ‘Absit invidia verbo’ - may ill-will be absent from the word. And mindful of that, if I don't respond, this may be why....